Hello again! This is Ju.
Now here in Maastricht, weather is pretty chilly. Surely it rains a lot here in Maastricht.Ahh.. Everybody’s busy again because the new period has started. I’m taking two courses in this period 2. Its really demanding (but interesting at the same time!). I would like to talk about how it is to study here with PBL system AFTER I pass these two courses.(Hopefully haha) Sorry for late post.. I couldn’t sleep well these days preparing for presentation Ewww… You could really feel the intensity of PBL isn it? hahahaha 🙂
So, Whats for today?
I would like to post how my life has been for last two months. Parties,travel,friends… Not even a day goes by without something interesting happenning!
Introduction week, parties, parties….it continues..
A lot of people would be worried about how are they going to make friends, get to know new people here once they arrive. I was worried too. However, it is not so hard here in UM. When I arrived, there was whole lot of parties already organized by ESN(Erasmus Student Network). I’ve been to several of them, and met nice people, made coooool friends!
Here is the video of introduction week. I saw this video in ESN facebook and thought it might be cool to share it here also. Just to remind you, it is created by ESN Maastricht 🙂 I see some familiar faces in the video haha!
My friends who are doing exchange in Europe said that the party only lasted one week, and there is no official party in her school. This is NOT the case of UM. Everyweek there is something going on, so you could always enjoy them.
Apart from parties organized by ESN, there are a lot of gatherings, small house parties. For instance, ‘interational dinner night’ has been held several times in mainguesthouse. Everybody brings some food from their own country! I remember cooking fried noodles.
*For students coming from Asia: there is a fairly big oriental market here. You could continue cooking your own country’s cuisine!
Travel arond Europe
In period 1, I traveled a lot. Unfortunately I’m not sure if I could do so this period(I have so many pages to read and digest!) but I will surely visit some cities near Maastricht. Here are some tips for traveling.
1. Be wise, buy the right ticket.
Be sure to buy ticket that fits to your situation. Take for instance. You wanna make a day trip to Amsterdam this weekend, buy one-day valid promotion train ticket from grocery shops here, for cities in Netherlands. Buy GOPASS(any journey within belgium area, 5euro. total 10 journeys available so price of the pass is 50 euro) if you often visit airports in Belgium. Ask people about cheapest way to get somewhere and do not overpay for transportation!
*For someone who is staying a year, getting OV-chipcard is convenient too!
2. Always check on cheap flight (or bus)
I use website called skyscanner to fnd cheap flights. Time to time, there is a great deal! Keep checking for cheal flight and you will find one!
Here are some pics from it. Enjoy!
Barcelona
Paris
Berlin
I will upload pics from Brussel Brugge Switzerland also! 🙂 See u next time!
(Questions always welcome!)
Study abroad 
Hello Ju!! I only have one question. I am going to do Erasmus in Maastricht next year but apparently I won’t be able to stay in the main guesthouse (brouwersweg 100, right?). I am definitely excited about the parties. Do people from other residencies get to attend the parties held there or are they a bit left out? I am a bit worried about that. Thank u!! Hope you see this..
hey Matilde! well it really is up to you. though it might be hard for you to join parties held in guesthouse, you will have no problem having fun in official or house parties held around the cities! My friends who lived in other guesthouse and other flats have their own parties too so you dont really have to worry about that!